The Japanese Consulate in Jiandao and the Japanese Government-General in Korea: Cooperation and Confrontation concerning the 'Jiandao Communist Party Incidents’

Mizuno N.

doi:10.14989/200247

The consular police stationed in Jiandao, where the Korean Independence movement and Korean communist movement were quite vigorous, operated on a scale grander than any other part of Japan's Foreign Ministry police system. In order to control these Korean movements, the judicial authorities of the Japanese Government-General in Korea and the Japanese consulate in Jiandao created collaborative arrangements for the arrest, prosecution and detention of Korean activists. It was a system in which defendants were sent to courts in Korea after the Jiandao consular police had made their arrest. The most significant affairs to be processed by this system were the five distinct Jiandao communist party incidents between 1925 and 1932. In dealing with such a large number of suspects, the consular police and the Government-General revealed their differing opinions on matters such as methods of investigation and judicial administration as well as effective maintenance of detention centers. In addition, the two sides came into conflict over the propriety of applying the Peace Preservation Law to Koreans who had joined the Chinese Communist Party. For that reason, of the 767 suspects sent to Keijō (Seoul) by the Jiandao consulate in connection with the five Jiandao Communist Party incidents, 344 of them (45%) went unindicted, were acquitted or were found innocent. Concerning the problem of Peace Preservation Law application, in order to develop a broad interpretation that would allow its use against members of the Chinese Communist Party, Government-General judicial officials accepted the opinion of the Jiandao consulate and thus the views of Japanese authorities in Korea and Jiandao came into agreement. In managing these incidents, however, the conflict and discord between the two sides was in fact not resolved. In 1932, Japan strengthened its military control with the establishment of Manshūkoku, and the Japanese consulate in Jiandao modified the system of cooperative judicial administration between Jiandao and Korea in response to that development. Namely, without sending suspects to the Government-General, preliminary proceedings were held in Jiandao and suspects were sent directly to a court in the Ch'ongjin region for trial, and in other cases many of Communist Party members were murdered upon their arrest.

The Japanese Consulate in Jiandao and the Japanese Government-General in Korea: Cooperation and Confrontation concerning the 'Jiandao Communist Party Incidents’

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